SEATTLE — Washington voters legalized recreational pot use on Tuesday, setting up a showdown with a federal government that backs the drug's prohibition.

Initiative 502 would create a system of state-licensed marijuana growers, processors and retail stores, where adults over 21 can buy up to an ounce. It also establishes a standard blood test limit for driving under the influence.

On Thursday, Washington became the first state to officially legalize marijuana, soon to be followed by Colorado as their new laws legalizing the drug for recreational use go into effect. A survey out Friday shows what Americans want the federal government to do about the states whose drug laws clash with national laws: Leave them alone. Fifty-one percent of Americans in the new HuffPost/YouGov poll said that in the two states that have legalized marijuana use for adults, the federal government should exempt any adults following state laws from federal drug law enforcement.

Daily News @ http://RevolutionNews.US ~ California voters snuffed out Prop 19 which would have legalized recreational marijuana cultivation, according to ABC News projections, but backers said they would try again to legalize pot in 2012.

New legislation in Washington state went into effect this week that legalizes for the first time in ages the possession of marijuana. Federal law still says otherwise, though, setting up the Justice Department to make some serious determinations. Even as smoking up became protected by state law in Washington starting Thursday, coast-to-coast prohibition as provided by a long-standing federal ruling remains on the books. For marijuana advocates in the Pacific Northwest, the lifting of the ban is a pretty big victory.

As marijuana “pot” smokers gather beneath Seattle’s Space Needle to celebrate the fact that the drug was legalized in the state of Washington, the DEA continues to warn youth that legalization doesn’t make something “right” or good for you. According to the DEA, when marijuana is smoked the drug THC moves into the user’s lungs and then into their bloodstream, where it is then moved into all the organs in the body, including the brain.

An initiative which would legalize medical marijuana has qualified for the November ballot in Arizona.

The Arizona Secretary of State on Tuesday informed the Arizona Medical Marijuana Policy Project (AMMPP) that it had turned in the required number of signatures -- 153,365 -- to qualify for the ballot. The initiative will be presented to Arizona voters for approval on November 2, reports the Tucson Citizen.

Eight former Drug Enforcement Administration chiefs said Tuesday that the federal government needs to act now or it might lose the chance to nullify Colorado and Washington's laws legalizing recreational marijuana use.

The state of Washington is the latest state to cave to the federal government and the DEA regime as their governor is set to veto a purposed medical marijuana bill on Friday, for fear that the federal government might go after state employees.